Combe, George (1788-1858)

A phrenologist with interests in penal reform and education, George Combe met George Eliot in Charles Bray's home in 1851, during which he examined her head, proclaiming her to be extraordinary. He noted that she had looked 40 when in fact she was 32 and remarked on her delicate health, but felt that she had 'great analytic power and an instinctive soundness of judgment,' and that she appeared to be the ablest woman he had ever seen. His assessment revealed that she had a very large brain, noting the anterior lobe's large dimensions. Upon learning of Eliot's relationship with a married George Henry Lewes, Combe was horrified that his readings of her skull could have been so wrong. In strained letters to Bray, Combe suspected insanity in Eliot's family, which could only explain such a behavior.

George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org

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